The Russian soprano Elena Stikhina was born in Lesnoy and studied at the Moscow Conservatory, and at the Galina Vishnevskaya Opera Centre. After initial appearances at the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre in Vladivostock, she made her debut at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg as Salome, for which she was awarded the Onegin Prize and the ‘Golden Soffit’ theatre prize. She went on to become a member of the ensemble of the Mariinsky Theatre.
In 2016 she was awarded the audience and CulturArte prizes in Plácido Domingo’s Operalia competition, which led to numerous international guest engagements in Europe and the USA. These included Tatyana (Eugene Onegin) at the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki and at the Paris Opéra, Tosca at the Boston Lyric Opera, Mimì (La bohème) at the Berlin State Opera, Leonora (Il trovatore) at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Senta (Der fliegende Holländer) at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, and the title role of Suor Angelica at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.
In 2019 she made her Salzburg Festival debut in the title role of Cherubini’s Médée, returning in 2021 for Britten’s War Requiem and in 2022 as Aida.
Recent engagements have taken Elena Stikhina to the Semperoper Dresden and the Paris Opéra as Leonora (La forza del destino), to the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam as Cio-Cio-San (Madama Butterfly), to the Grand Théâtre de Genève as Aida and to Paris as Princess Yaroslavna in Borodin’s Prince Igor.
Other engagements include Salome for La Scala, Milan, the Zurich Opera House and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Tosca at the Metropolitan Opera, at Covent Garden and at the Vienna State Opera, Tatyana at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, Lisa (The Queen of Spades) at the Baden-Baden Festspielhaus and Santuzza (Cavalleria rusticana) in Vienna.
Her engagements in the 2023/24 season will include Aida at the Arena di Verona, Cio-Cio-San at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and Amelia (Un ballo in maschera) and Mimì at the Met.
